Preparedness for natural disasters among older US adults: A nationwide survey [Preparación de los adultos mayores en los Estados Unidos para hacer frente a los desastres naturales: Encuesta a escala nacional]

T.M. Al-Rousan, L.M. Rubenstein and R.B. Wallace

American Journal of Public Health, 2015, vol. 105, S614-S626

Abstract: Objectives. We sought to determine natural disaster preparedness levels among older US adults and assess factors that may adversely affect health and safety during such incidents. Methods. We sampled adults aged 50 years or older (n = 1304) from the 2010 interview survey of the Health and Retirement Study. The survey gathered data on general demographic characteristics, disability status or functional limitations, and preparedness-related factors and behaviors. We calculated a general disaster preparedness score by using individual indicators to assess overall preparedness. Results. Participant (n = 1304) mean age was 70 years (SD = 9.3). Only 34.3% reported participating in an educational program or reading materials about disaster preparation. Nearly 15% reported using electrically powered medical devices that might be at risk in a power outage. The preparedness score indicated that increasing age, physical disability, and lower educational attainment and income were independently and significantly associated with worse overall preparedness. Conclusions. Despite both greater vulnerability to disasters and continuous growth in the number of older US adults, many of the substantial problems discovered are remediable and require attention in the clinical, public health, and emergency management sectors of society. Copyright © 2015 American Public Health Association.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301559

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2013.301559_6

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301559

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().